If your clicking back through to ERobinsons.com for the first time in awhile, do yourself a favor and check out the front page. I added a video player and all the pictures are finally back. Tracy is getting ready to upload new pictures any day now.

I had to write to say life has been Sensory Overload. We’ve been jamming in the events in true summer fashion. Not so much for ourselves, but for Garrett. It seems we get lots of pleasure out of doing things that he might enjoy. Being 2 and 4 months, it’s not hard to do because for him everything is fun. In the last week Garrett did the Memorial Day parade, went out in a row boat with my friend Matt, went to the Ringling Brothers Circus, went away “camping” in an RV again in upstate NY and visited the Strong Museum of Play. We’ve taken hundreds of pictures, so soon you’ll be having sensory overload with our website in keeping up! 

In three short weeks, we’ll be taking Garrett to see his first beach (”go beach!” he keeps asking) in Mystic, CT  (cheaper than the Jersey Shore) and to see the aquarium there. We’ll be going “camping” again, this time in a cabin.

Our savings have, like every other American, been affected by gas prices. We’ve found a few other creative ways to save a little more. We don’t just “go out” like we used to. Our mini-cations are made possible by the fact we are booking places with kitchens (thus the RV and cabin) so we can cook all our own food. There also 3 hours or so away, so we can fill up in PA make it up and back without needing to paying the higher out-of-state prices. However we still rely on our savings to soften the blow. Someday, somehow we’ll buy a house. It’s just not happening as fast as we would of liked.

My parents are looking into selling their property. So that could end up being a life changing event, seeing as we moved in with them. We have no problem in moving out. Helping them move from a place they’ve been for more than three decades will be the real challenge if it happens! In preparation of that possible move, we’re planning a big garage sale this coming weekend. Because of the possible sale we’re putting the consignment shop plans (and spending) on hold and selling some of the “stock” of clothing and toys.

So stop by anytime if your around the 7th or 8th from 9-3!

Other than that, works good, families good and life is good! TGIS, thank god its summer!

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I’m 28 today, but don’t try and tell that to the woman who works returns at the Tunkhannock Wal-Mart. She didn’t believe it last night. She also swore my son was my little brother. The wedding ring was the only visual proof that I was older than 17.

It’s been snowing pretty hard around here. I wanted to take some pictures, but I figured, we all know what snow looks like. If you live around here, you don’t need me to take a photo to show you how beautiful all the tress looked with all the branches perfectly covered in snow. My friend Matt calls this  “holiday shopping snow”, because it sticks to everything, but the roads. (I however am doing most of my holiday shopping online this year!) I remember it snowing only once on my birthday. I can’t remember how old I was. I wasn’t more than 10. REAL snow on Christmas is rare enough, let alone BEFORE thanksgiving! It’s also weird to have my birthday and Thanksgiving on the same week, another rarity. I wonder what other oddity’s will pop up today!

I find myself oddly reflecting on just my past recently. Maybe because I look at everything through my son’s eyes now and how things ‘used’ to be when I was ‘growing up’, which wasn’t that long ago. I’m not looking too far ahead like I used to (big ideas, big dreams), which can be both good and bad. While I’m trying my best to enjoy the present, I really don’t know where I’m going or what I’m looking forward too… besides getting older. I think am in need of some new dreams, besides the most basic ones like owning a house someday and having a bigger family.

I think the root cause is the fact its now Winter. Today’s snow mixed with the colder weather, plus the fact it gets dark by 6! The start of winter sparks emotions of hibernation and the “end” of a season. What I need is the motivation you feel when it’s spring and summer.

I have however been focusing a lot on Tracy’s future. I’m continuing to fix up the garage next door to my parents for Tracy’s “future” consignment shop. However doing something is always harder then saying you’ll do something. For example take hanging insulation. Buying the insulation was the easy part. Putting it up is a rough and thankless job, in fact my eyes are still slightly itchy today! You also don’t get instant results from it, only later when your utility bills are HOPEFULLY lower. I want to paint and put flooring down, because you can stand back from that work and say “look at the difference.” But that can’t be done until all the other tedious tasks are finished. Our electrician, a retired family friend, is moving a lot faster than I expected. However once his work is finished, our work is far from it. I figured if he was slow to get the work done (since he’s retired), I’d have an excuse for the work moving so slow! (But “retired” people have lots of time on their hands! Thus in a week nearly all the work is complete!) The truth is we don’t have the money and the time ourselves to do everything quickly and open up ASAP. The plan was, and still is, to slowly buy what we need (as we can afford it) to fix the place up. The only problem is, there was a ton more work to be done (and things to buy) than we expected. (Isn’t that always the case?)

I have to keep telling myself that my biggest problem is that I lose focus after working on one project for so long. I get bored too easily of things. I think this makes takes a toll on the “business/work” side of my brain. Sometimes It makes my current job seem depressing when I have to do the same thing, over and over. Its why I hated working in a call center so much! I’m really glad I don’t work on a assembly line, I think I’d go crazy. I guess you could call it my need to be creative. It’s a blessing and a curse. I love creating new things, but I go insane being repetitive sometimes. I’m also picking up a bit of my wife’s OCD. It doesn’t help that not much at home is in its “place” because we don’t have places to put everything! Oh how I would love to have a clean bedroom again! (Maybe I should of asked for that for my birthday/Christmas instead of a Dremel!)

I have a lot to be thankful for as I say happy birthday to me, because all and all things are better than they used to be!

SIDE NOTE: Welcome to our NEW website address ERobinsons.com! I’ve been slowly moving everything over from our old severs that first setup TimandTracy.net many years ago. You’ll find pretty much everything the same way, but now at ERobinsons.com! (My blog however had to revert back to my OLD theme, because the new one wouldn’t work with the NEW blog software update!) The FRONT PAGE is the only NEW thing here so far, but the “back end” is 10x more powerful, faster and much easier for me to use. You’ll start to see  MORE improvements over the coming months! Hopefully by Christmas our photo gallery will be fully moved (the only thing that’s not because it’s so darn large! Over 1500 photos!) and updated with some pretty cool new features.

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I think of blogging as my way of clearing my head or getting things off my chest. I write tons of junk down and you lucky people get to read it. But of course it’s not JUNK if YOUR reading it. It’s deep, meaningful and a great way to spend your time online.

So why haven’t I blogged in so long? Eh, pick a reason…

-We moved back to Tunkhannock

-My mother-in-law was diagnosed with and started treatment for breast cancer

-We started working harder on moving towards the goal of Tracy opening a consignment shop

-Garrett is fun to play with and consumes most of our time

-I’ve been busy with a backlog at work (trade show video/United Way video/web videos/new HD camera purchase), leaving me no time for casual web activities, since I have no real “free” time.

So why am I blogging today? Again, pick a reason…
1. I’m having a “future career/job/work” crisis of what to plan far ahead in the future for… web design/computer repair/pet shop/coffee shop/diner… whatever.

2. I can’t seem to get ahead with home/work projects… there’s more to do then I have time to do it.

3. I want to create a new look/feel and update our “web presence”, since we never even update our old website anymore and subconsciously I feel by blogging I’ve done SOMETHING to update the old website.

So that’s what I’m here for. Now let me explain…

Every now and then I get this itch to do something else with my life. Not that there’s anything wrong with what I do. I still enjoy my work, but I’d be stupid to think I can do this forever. I’m lucky to have such a specialized job, but the industry I work with is always in flux. It’s a luxury to have an “in-house” video edit suite at a powerwheel chair (& other mobility products) company, so I consider it a blessing every day I get to work here. However, someday I really want a job that would let me work on my own terms.

We’ve been working very hard on getting my parents old rental garage in a more “business ready” shape to help Tracy start a kids consignment shop. The reasons for that were pretty simple and it came like a lightning bolt to us one day. Tracy would be able to have hopefully a profitable business that would allow us to watch Garrett in the shop, since it’s designed for kids. We’d be opening right next door to my parents with a big backyard right outside.  We’d also be renting off my parents, so we’d be helping them with not only improving the rental space if we ever move out, but we’d be paying them steady rent if we stayed in business. About the same time we came up with this idea, Tracy’s mom was just diagnosed with breast cancer. We figured (being the forward thinking people we are) it could be the perfect place for her to help work for us part time, considering we’d probably be opening or getting ready to open as she finishes up her treatments. There’s also no one better at being a people person that Tracy’s mom Judi. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if people would start to think it’s her shop. That’s fine by me, as long as people come back again! Starting this shop is not about the money, it’s about happiness… and that starts with making sure our family is cared for… be it Tracy, Garrett, my parents, even Tracy’s mom if she chooses.

And for those of you who don’t know how a kids consignment shop works.. it’s simple.. people bring in their kids stuff, we give them a “credit” for the profitable/sell-able items, donate the average stuff to charity, and the store credit encourages people to return again… there’s low overhead, it’s affordable (at least we plan to make it affordable, unlike other ‘resale’ shops in the area that charge JUST UNDER retail prices), and respectable since it’s not just “junk” that most charity thrift stores sell.

So there’s no secrete that someday, after this consignment shop is up and running and hopefully successful, that I’ll want to move on to my own thing that would give me and my family, full independence from “THE MAN” aka… being employed by someone else. But what to do is still a mystery and it’s a mix of what I WANT to do, what I CAN do, and what I can AFFORD to do. One of life’s challenges.

There’s the things I’m good at… video… computers… web design… graphics design… etc.
There’s the things I would like to do… pet store… coffee shop… bookstore…
The things I can afford to do right now… computer repair AT HOME… web design AT HOME…

So I’ve only come up with one answer to get things from the second line there down to the third line. Play the lottery or slot machines. That of course is stupid and I never can really bring myself to buy a ticket. I’d rather use my dollars on things like, you know, food.

So neway, that’s that…  I have to get back to work. Maybe later I’ll start designing something I’ve wanted to do for awhile. A new family website, because that’s something that’s not going out of business for me.

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After nearly 4 months of running Windows Vista on my computer, I’ve decided that I’m fed up and just can’t take it anymore!

It is by far the most annoying operating system ever created. Even XP wasn’t this hard to use when it first came out. While I’m not alone in my complaining, I’ll just list my annoyances that has me running back to my old Media Center Edition.

1.) Nothing Works Right
While most programs work, there are so many that don’t, or at least don’t work the way they were meant to. Dreamweaver has issues with FTP. Photoshop has issues with filters. After Effects has issues with the Aero interface. It’s one thing after another. The biggest problem is the simplest ones that are “KNOWN ISSUES” when you search the web, but NOTHING is being done to fix the problems. I can’t just “click” a photo and preview it in windows. If I click it, EXPLORER CRASHES, EVERYTIME! I can’t HEAR the sound on videos recorded with our digital camera. I can see them, but not hear them. A very STRANGE problem any computer geek would agree. (For techies, it’s because the standard codecs can read the video but not the audio, which makes no sence, since XP can do it without issue!)

2.) It’s always stopping itself from doing something
AVG Anti-Virus will do an update, but not be able to display something on the screen. Windows FREAKS and wants to know 10x a day what I want to do about it. It does this often with “security issues” which can be as simple as wanting to copy files in your “documents”, but windows REFUSING because the file is in use, but it really isn’t!

3.) It’s slow
While it can boot-up fast, loading applications takes forever and a day.

4.) Did I mention crashing?
Something always crashes. The sidebar, the desktop, internet explorer. It’s NEVER ENDING MADNESS!

5.) Computer is “vista ready” but vista isn’t ready for it
My notebook has buttons on the outside for audio/dvd controls. They have lights. They worked in XP, now they don’t. 5 months, still no help from HP. I should of known when I installed vista and my video driver didn’t work in the correct resolution for my WIDESCREEN monitor. You think they could of tested this before they shipped out the DVD made JUST FOR MY PC! There’s other stupid things like power management. It gives me percentages, but NEVER tells me how much time it thinks is left. One time it told me I had 0% power left… but stayed on for sometime. Another time I had 10% power left and it shut down then, even though my settings were for 7% to shut down (which makes me wonder why it got to 0% and STAYED ON!)

6.) Vista Knows it’s running slow, but still no help
A freindly pop-up comes up often saying “vista is slow, click here to learn more” giving you SUGESTIONS for making it run better. It doesn’t do anything about it on it’s own. I’m sorry, but a brand new notebook with a GIG of ram and a 1.6ghz DUAL CORE processor shouldn’t have performance issues when DOING NOTHING!

7.) “Built in” software is no help
You can’t use your fun burning software to make audio/data CD’s or DVD’s. Nero? Nope. Easy CD Creator? No way. It’s incomptable, UNLESS you upgrade and even then, it might not even work right. Windows BUILT IN data burner is HORRIABLE. Gives you no control and runs in the background so well, you can’t even find it!

8.) Plug-n-Play, but ONLY for Vista Compatable Products
I have an all in one scanner/printer. It isn’t vista compatable, so FORGET that software that came with it to do faxing/copying/etc. If vista can’t scan it for you (again, BAD built in software), then it won’t do it with vista.

Is that it? No, but that’s all I could think of right now. I’ve been so annoyed with vista that I actaually have grown to HATE the transparent windows and animations because it just reminds me I’m wasting all my precious processing power for being PRETTY instead of PRODUCTIVE!

Hopefully I’ll find time before the end of the month to REVERT back to the pretty XP Media Center Edition, which I really did like. I was so suckered into upgrading to Vista because of all the media hype, I should of listened to my gut to wait for it to be reviewed and fully tested. By the way, I think calling it an “upgrade” is a lie, because that implies you can install it OVER TOP of your old windows. No, No. You have to back everything up, FORMAT your entire computer hard drives, and then install. I think it should be called a “clean slate start” which isn’t a bad thing. REinstaling windows is sadly a common PC practice. Now if only the people over at Apple would come to their sences and sell their MacOS for PC’s, only then would Microsoft actually have to start making OS’es that ACTUALLY WORK! Guess that’s too much to ask from a monopoly.

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I celebrated this Independence day by first attempting to free our the house from junk following two consecutive weekends of “camping” (one weekend doing the relaxing kind w/ a rented RV on a lake & last weekend doing a less-enjoyable kind with a tent and record low overnight temperatures) our place looked like a post-party college dorm. I was also lucky enough to watch my son get OVERLY excited by loud explosions w/ color and also got a break from cleaning to go w/ my friend Matt for lunch at a Chinese food buffet which had employed at least two Mexicans in the kitchen. It doesn’t get more American than that!

Now that I’m on a roll with the cleaning, I’m tidding up my office and computers as well. I thought I’d clean up my favorites list and blog all the crazy/funny/wacky stuff I found on the web recently. ENJOY!

Crazy Quizes

I am 75% Addicted to Coffee

77%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:
shoot (4x) crappy (2x) pain (1x)

BUT Tracy’s Blog’s “Traveling with Tracy” & “The Daily Special” both got G ratings & used WORSE words than me! “The Daily Special” had “bomb (2x) hurt (1x)” and “Traveling with Tracy” “pain (3x) crappy (2x) knife (1x)” I don’t see how using BOMB and KNIFE in your blog isn’t bad, but saying shoot 4x’s is! I’ve also noticed we like to use the word “crappy” too much. Garrett’s Blog was also rated G, but the rating system didn’t like that he used “poop (1x)” once.To take these quizzes yourself, click on them. They are part of a new dating website. Not that I’m looking, it’s just their marketing ploy to bring people in! I LOVE YOU TRACY!
The Gender Genie
http://bookblog.net/gender/genie.php
This site takes someone’s writing and guesses if the author is either male or female by the words they used. It works best on works OVER 500 words, so I gave it a blog entry and it said this…

Female Score: 1797
Male Score: 1902
The Gender Genie thinks the author of this passage is: male!

THE MOST AWESOME OPTICAL ILLUSION SINCE MAGIC ART!
Remember those CRAZY, HYPNOTIC posters in the 90’s that were all the rage? You’d stare at it long enough and an image would POP OUT at you after your eyes adjusted. Now CHECK THIS OUT… http://www.johnsadowski.com/big_spanish_castle.php
This guy’s website has an illusion that shows two images, one of a black and white castle, and another image of its negative (I guess). You stare at the dot in the center of the first image for 30 seconds then, without looking away, slide your mouse over it to reveal the black and white image. Your eyes will PUT THEM TOGETHER and the castle will appear to be IN COLOR! OOOOOOOOOOOO trippy!

Time Lapse - Los Angeles to New York City
Finally, here’s a guy who shot his 7 Day Convertible car trip from Los Angeles to New York City and compressed it into 4 mins by creating a Time Lapse video. Very cool!

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Less mess equals less stress!

If I really want to reinvent myself and become an entrepreneur once again, I need to get organized.

I’ve been trying to get some tips from the pros and I thought I’d pass some of them along to you in a much shorter, summarized blog. I take no credit for any of this. I just copied and pasted!

Do Something Everyday

Baby Steps will help get you to your goals. While some who are successful in business love to brag and advise others that, like them, you have to “take a risk/ take a big jump / a leap of faith”, it’s actually a very haphazard way of conducting yourself. It’s like running across an interstate highway without looking first. By taking small steps and doing something everyday to reach your BIG goals you can slowly chip away at your mountain, making it a molehill. 

Organize Everything You Receive

Sort all e-mail, FILES ON YOUR COMPUTER, papers, etc, as you get them and put them into groups & subgroups. HINT: If your computer or real desktop doestn’t have EMPTY SPACE on it, then you’re not very organized! Throwing everything into MY DOCUMENTS doesn’t count!

Write Everything Down & Back everything up

If you get an important email don’t just RELY on your email service to save it… print it out or save it on your computer! Many suggest to USE A PAPER NOTEBOOK when possible for daily TO DO tasks. It’s actually MORE WORK to do a “TO DO” list on a computer I think, since it’s not as easy to reference (doesn’t need to be booted up) and it doesn’t quite feel as good to check things off on the computer, as it does on paper. Electronic devices are also fickle. They need power—like on Friday my chair got tied up in my notebooks power cord and ripped it out, forcing me to order another one. Electronics also don’t like to get dropped or get wet. Paper doesn’t care!

Be Productive, Not Just Busy

This one I think I find myself guilty of. Just because you’re busy doesn’t mean you’re productive.

“Staying busy, without really working. What I mean by this is doing lots of activities — checking email, making phone calls, meetings, reading feeds and Websites — things that keep you busy, but not working towards a goal. Staying busy, and accomplishing your goals, are two very different things. I’ve fallen into this trap myself many times.”
Tony D. Clark from Success from the Nest (rss)

Create “Free Flowing Routines”

Make small changes to your daily habits and routines to get the MOST out of your time.  Once you get into a routine, it’s hard to see how breaking those “habits” could save you time now and then. Sometimes it’s as simple as changing the ORDER of the things you always do each day.

Break big tasks down into smaller stepsStop Debating With Yourself & Just Do Something!

“People waste time making the same little decisions again and again. They keep asking themselves things like “do I have to wake up now” “should I work out today,” “can I watch another 30 minutes of TV.” Success is a habit. Train yourself to always wake up at a certain time, make your workouts mandatory, schedule your TV watching and stick to that schedule. The constant plea bargaining in your mind not only wastes your time, but it also lowers your motivation to get things done.”
Will from Wise Bread (rss)

STOP “shopping” for Your Favorite Task

Cleaning & organizing books will tell you that when you pick something up PUT IT AWAY, instead of looking for something else you’d rather clean up first. This just sets you up for a string of unenjoyable tasks all at once! Possibly even MORE unenjoyable since you kept thinking about how much you wouldn’t enjoy having to do those tasks.

(This leads me to…)

STOP thinking about ALL of your responsibilities and commitments at once!

“Having your own mind constantly interrupt you with other things you need to be doing (or forgot to do) can absolutely cripple your productivity and effectiveness in most areas of your life… “Knowing that all of my stuff is written down elsewhere makes it much easier to focus on what I’m doing, and doing that task well. And obviously, the clearer your head is when doing something, the better you’ll be able to perform.”
Brett Kelly from Cranking Widgets (rss)

Know the Value of Each Task & Goal BEFORE Starting

“I believe it is a combination of two things that causes people to waste time without even realizing it. First, as Stephen Covey put it eloquently, people may be climbing the “ladder of success” very efficiently, but if this ladder is leaning against the wrong wall, they won’t be effective. In other words, they may find that they have been very busy doing the wrong things without even realizing it, and therefore wasting their time.Second, people may be “doing” a project or trying to achieve a goal, without having a clear idea about why exactly they are doing it. In other words, they haven’t given the desired successful outcome of the task or project any significant thought at all. Again, they may find themselves wasting their time on finishing a project that turns out to have no real value to them.”
gtdfrk from Getting Things Done (rss) 

Check E-Mail Now & Then, Not 24/7

I blame high speed, always on internet at work and home for programs like Outlook to run ALL THE TIME to get you know when YOU GOT MAIL. Back in the day when you “dialed up” to check your email, you didn’t do it every minute. You did it now & then!

“Email is huge, and presents a big opportunity for many people to improve how they use their time. Some of my suggestions include scheduling fixed times in the day to process messages (AKA “time blocking” or “time mapping”), quitting the program afterwards, and making sure the “new mail” alarm is disabled. In workshops I ask clients to think about email as they would a chainsaw - it’s powerful, dangerous, and should not be fired up just to “check the trees.” Start the program, so the work of dealing with each message (getting them out of the inbox), then move on.” Matthew Cornell from Idea Matt (rss)

Stop Trying to Do EVERYTHING All At Once 
“Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once” Albert Einstein
Computers can multitask quickly, but people can’t! People try to do it, but all their really doing is constantly changing gears– which can do nothing but waste time as you stop one task and try to start up another. 

Now Stop Organizing & Start Doing!

“Confusing “busy-ness” with productivity. You can be completely busy all day, uber-organized, on-top-of your calendar, next action lists, reference material, etc., and yet still not get anything done. It’s not just about Collecting, Processing, Organizing. You really need to get to the Doing and Reviewing.” GTD Wannabe from GTD Wannabe (rss)Do Something EVERYDAY!

“There are a million ways we keep ourselves busy when we’re actually not really accomplishing anything — phone calls, emails, reading blogs, IM, Twitter, etc. The biggest reason people waste time this way while still thinking they’re getting stuff done is that they don’t identify the 2-3 most important tasks they want to accomplish today, and focus on them.” Leo Babauta from Zen Habits (rss)

Last, but most importantly…
BE PERSONALLY PRODUCTIVE!!!
The point of being productive is to give yourself more time to do the things that really matter. Once you’re more productive at your profession, you can be productive with your personal life!Work better, so you can enjoy life more!

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The Brainstorm Katrina

I’ve been restless with the idea for starting my own business. I don’t know where it came from actually. There’s nothing wrong with my current job, I am happy at where I’m at. In fact when I first brought up the idea to my wife, she was shocked since it came from far out in left field.

Now I think the idea came from being able to do something for myself, insted of working for others. I can’t see myself doing commercials & training videos for a power wheelchair company forever. This is a whole post on it’s own, but I know the idea really ignites my passion for work in a way that I haven’t felt in a very long time.

I’ve had plenty of time to think since this first “urge” hit me. It started just before we went away to the Finger Lakes last weekend. The time away really brought a focus to my mind, but I couldn’t yet understand exactly what I was thinking or feeling let alone what type of business I wanted to start.

At the start of this week I did the one thing I knew how to, create a business name and concept and see if that pushes me towards something I can wrap my head around. During this brainstorm I came across the revelativly new concept of doing Aquarium Rentals for local business, small offices, waiting rooms in Doctor’s offices, etc.  While the idea is still exciting to me, once I thought of it, I took the planning a bit too far in the wrong direction. I was quick to try and name this business, wasting countless hours looking at available websites out there for catchy names that haven’t been taken, all while not actually having a real business plan. I had only rough guesses and estimates.  When I unloaded this half-a*sed plan to Tracy, I irritated her by making lots of definitive statements, like, about how I could see myself leaving my job in 2 years. In reality I had not even done a shred of real work to get me any closer to where I was when I started this whole thought process, which turned a refreshing brainstorm into a destructive hurricane.

Back To Basics

So here it is Friday, a whole week has passed and now that the storm has subsided its time to review. Luckly, I actually did acomplish something. I was able to get some advice from others.

I went onto websites like ReefCentral.com and posted my ideas for feedback. I also found a few people online already doing the same type of business, so I emailed them to ask how they got started.

Here’s some of the feedback I got. It was a mix of stupid, sobering and inspiring.

First there was the idea that it was best to pour money into a business first, possibly starting by setting up lots of tanks at home. However I wouldn’t be married anymore if I told Tracy I wanted to spend $10,000 for 10 tanks “in hopes” someone would rent them the way I had set them up.

Another suggestion is that I needed to have a public face/ a store front / a showroom in order to gain credibility. I ran this by Tracy and after a long discussion, she pointed out there’s little-to-no profit in that, it’s just more money I’d have to make back to cover the added overhead of running the store, plus it also ties me down, when I need to spend my time going out, finding new customers, installing new setups & doing regular service.

After asking one guy HOW he runs his business, he told me that I should just do what he did… work full PART time for an aquarium dealer several years so I can actually learn what it takes to run a business, then go out on my own and don’t take any of the customers with me. So in turn he didn’t tell me anything about HOW TO just HOW he started. Not to mention doing what he did is a bit of a waste of time for me. I don’t want to sound like a know-it-all, but I know a few basic things about running a business. BACKSTORY: I used to run a trading card business when I was in middle school (with the help of my parents) setting up in malls and flea markets on weekends. It made me some pretty good money (for a pre-teen!) until the stupid baseball strike. That created distain for the game of baseball (the biggest trading card business of them all). It was also at the time there were tons of new trading card companies and the HOT NEW TREND at the time of “gaming” trading cards of Magik or Pokémon which all flooded and killed the industry for small traders. I then fixed computers & did websites for sometime, but only on the side, not full time. After that my ever famous wedding video business, which worked very well for two summers, but turned out to be more a pain than was worth the profits. My parents have also been in business for nearly 3 decades and I learned a lot about what TO DO and more importantly about what NOT TO DO from them. Plus my degree in commuincations, background in television and now experience in marketing/advertising also gives me invaluable skills as well. So working part time in a pet store won’t help me THAT much buddy!

Then the suguestions got better…

A guy that runs an aquarium rental and service business in Australia http://www.aquariumleasing.com.au/ replied to my inquiry, only to tell me he’ll get back to me with more information later since he was on his way out on a 7 day cruise. I guess whatever he’s doing is working!

The last guy I didn’t expect an email back from was Richard Below from Aqua-Terra Studios. http://www.rbilow.com/ He’s designed amazingly tanks as works of art for many, many famous people and famous places. Here’s the list in SMALL FONT…  Fran Drescher, Perry Ferrell, Tommy Lee, Heather Locklear, Courtney Cox, Charlie Sheen and Shaquille O’Neal, among others. His works have become integral features in many interior spaces, including the City of Beverly Hills City Hall Complex, San Diego Marriot Hotel, The Friars of Beverly Hills, and the famed Wolfgang Puck/Barbara Lazaroff restaurant, Granita, in Malibu California. I didn’t expect his reply, let alone the time he took to write a very long and gracious e-mail at that. I will only SUMORIZE it in hopes of keeping this short. His comments were the most helpful. He first took into consideration that I have a family to support.

 “Unfortunately, I could not have created my most interesting works if I had a wife and child, unless my wife made a lot of money and was willing to have a husband who made much less than her.” “My creative achievements are the result of living an artist’s lifestyle (i.e. way too much work for way too little money). “

He went on to say that all profitable aquarist dealers make their real money on maintenance and supplies, not the fish or tank setups. He also said there are vultures in the business at every turn for his profession who will copy his work and inovations, selling them cheaper because they didn’t have to spend any time on design. He also said the RARE big jobs often go to big design firms and the celebrity jobs go to insiders. All of those jobs most often pit businesses to bid against each other for the lowest price, sacrificing art and profits. So I get his drift, doing works-of-art for a living isn’t a profitable one.

What drives him is his love for art and innovation. “After more than 15 years of dedication, I do find clients who understand that one-of-a-kind complex installations are something very special and are well worth the money.”  He told me that if I wanted to do what he does I’d have to do what his Dad told him and “make it your avocation”.  He said this is because the numbers often don’t add up.  “Without my service business, I would have to sell about one “big” job every 6 months minimum.”  So as an alternative, he left me with a few ideas, that I’ll leave you with, that I think will help me in creating a business plan with a true focus.

• > Do cookie-cutter installations. (Easy to streamline, know your profit-debt ratios, etc)

• > Contributing innovative products to the industry. (Sell something that others can’t do on their own or aren’t readliy available)

• > Offer Aquariums As Part Of A Home Remodeling Project. (I think this is an LA thing… not to many people just randomly “remodel” their home around here)

• > Build on a model that will make you money. (So I won’t be designing tanks for Brad Pitt and Angelina w/ adopted fish from Africa)

• > Express your creativity for fun. (Hrm….)

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After some much needed time away, I’m returning to blogging. A lot has changed here. I’m fully done with wedding videos. I have new bosses at work. Plus I’m working on a new business start up down the road. I just got back from a vacation to the Finger Lakes and have a very swiss cheese like work schedule the next week because of the holiday. So I can promise some new blogs, especially with all that I’ve been reading on business start-ups. Interestingly enough… it will fit my blogs title better, thoughts about starting a fish tank rental business!
Also of note 1,000 hits from 8 difffernt countries! GO ME!

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I can’t believe it. It is hard for me to comprehend. It has not even sunk in yet, the magnitude of what I have accomplished. I have FINISHED THE WEDDING VIDEOS!!! Anyone who knows me well knows I used to shoot wedding videos “on the side”. The problem was “on the side” became all the time, despite the fact I have held many demanding full time jobs. On top of that, the climax of the workload came when Tracy became pregnant, then we moved home followed by the the birth of Garrett. Thus delaying my work, angering couples and completely stressing me out. I am not SLIGHTLY joking when I say there wasn’t ONE SINGLE DAY that went by, that editing the wedding videos wasn’t on my mind. It was a downward spiral. I’d ask myself early in the morning ”can I edit anytime today?” often followed by “I don’t have time today” which turned into “crap, when will I have time next?” thus I’d panic ”I’m never going to finish them” which then made me a bit crabby (my wife would use more colorful, descriptive terms) and I would not be a “joy” to be around, myself included. Today I mailed out the FINAL COPIES of the last wedding video I ever shot. I haven’t felt this much JOY inside since the birth of my son!

BACKSTORY ON THE WEDDINGS
When me and Tracy first got married things were tight financially. (There’s a LONG story in itself about that, you can read our past blogs if you care) Tracy suggested why not try shooting wedding videos. I had never done one, but figured it was worth a shot. I researched them a bit online and saw many crappy videos. Since I had went to school for TV and worked in TV I figured I could easily do a better job. I finally had a computer that could easily edit video and we had just bought a video camera before we were married. I used it on our honeymoon and edited some things together, which is how Tracy came up with the idea I believe. I placed an TINY classified ad in the local paper in Lehighton offering a $300 wedding video (since most go for $600-800-1000-1200+! I figured my simple one camera wedding would look great for the bargain price of only $300) After the ad ran we got a call to shoot a wedding THE NEXT WEEKEND (very rare) at a place JUST UP THE HILL from our house (even more rare). This is one of those few times I personally believe God touched our lives. It was JUST ENOUGH money to help us get by that month. I hate to think what we would of done without it. I went out, bought a tie clip mic at radio shack, not even wireless. It turned out to be a beautiful sunny summer day with beautiful views. My crappy camera (not a $3000 deal… that I later rented from friends, times two cameras!) didn’t look bad at all when the weather was that nice! I ran a long wire to the mic on a stand by the couple and the audio sounded great too! It was amazing that it all came together!

After that we tried HARD CORE marketing. We advertised a lot more, paid BIG BUCKS to get on TheKnot.com in the Philadelphia area. We also paid MORE money to go to Wedding Shows (putting it on our credit cards!) which Tracy and her mom went to while I worked during the day. She was the driving force behind the business and I couldn’t of done it without her help. 

By the end of last summer I think I shot well over 12 weddings. I really don’t know the exact number and if I didn’t decided to quit, I could of done a lot more because word of mouth advertising started spreading and I got a calls ALL THE TIME. I had so many requests sometimes I referred them to friends. One time I actually hired two friends to shot a wedding THE SAME DAY I was shooting another. That was a bit crazy! Vice versa, they hired me to help shoot their weddings too. It helped that at the TV station I worked at in Allentown, two of my work friends there ran wedding video businesses of their own, which they bought lots of expensive equipment for that I later always rented from them. I did buy some things like two lights, batteries, a wireless mic, etc… but I never broke down and spent $3000 for my own “3 chip” professional camera, let alone two of them! 

It was a great experience, but I would never do it again! It was WAY to much work for the amount of money they paid. The most expensive wedding I booked (twice) was $1200 and even then isn’t worth it for what it cost me in equipment purchases, rentals, hiring help and most of all PERSONAL TIME! From Mid 2005 until now, I worked on wedding videos ever free moment I had. The drain on my personal life was very tough, but Tracy stuck by me and was a big help. So you can now see why I’m glad this chapter in my life is now complete!

SIMPLIFY!
That is my personal plan for my immediate future. When I graduated college I wanted to complicate my life professionally. I wanted to move up the ladder in broadcasting quickly. Moving from Hartford, back home, then to Allentown and thinking Philly or DC next!  Then I thought the wedding video business would mean financial freedom. It turned out to be the complete opposite of any type of freedom. I did them because I had to and if  I could go back, I’d do them again, because we need that money during one of the toughest times of our lives financially. But I’ve learned an important lesson. Life is best lived by enjoying the simplest things. I decided to simplify my life so I can spend time with my friends and family. It’s one of the reasons I left TV. The stress became to much and the hours were awful, for very little pay. We moved home to be near friends and family, who helped us with the birth of our son. We ended up finding jobs we love that are NORMAL and we are finally financially stable. Enough so, that we were actually able to get financing for a “new” used car for Tracy last weekend when her car died for the last time! (You can read about that at Tracy’s Blog if you haven’t already)

MY TURN!
I can now focus on doing video projects for my own friends, family and personal interests.

Just last week I finished a DVD of 6 services for my church, Parker Hill, on “Eternity: The Next Chapter” which I will soon post on Google video. A preacher in NJ wanted that series on DVD so he could use it as part of his ministry to prisoners. Our church videotapes the Saturday night service for replays Sunday morning at one of it’s two churches. They also use powerpoint presentations to illustrate points, stories and verses. I just simply edited the powerpoints into the video. It was actually easy enough that I volunteered to do it EVERY WEEK, but on a week delay so people wouldn’t be tempted to miss church since it would be posted online Monday! It would take me about an hour every week to re-watch the service, put the powerpoints in and then render it out on DVD for archiving and posting on the web for people to view. I think it’s a great way to give back weekly to the church using my skills while reaching out to hopefully touch other peoples lives with The Word.

IRONY
One more weird thing about the wedding videos. Because of them I haven’t ever edited MY OWN WEDDING VIDEO that I paid a friend Marshall King to shoot for me with our video camera. My mom has been bugging me about it since we got married THREE YEARS AGO, but I couldn’t bring myself to edit my wedding video when I had so many couples that had paid me to do theirs! Now I finally can! THANK THE LORD!

“Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

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I ”upgraded” my computer to Microsoft’s new Windows Vista operating system last week. Now that I’ve have had plenty of time to get used to it, I thought I would put in my two cents on this long overdue upgrade to windows.

First my complaints…
This was supposed to be an “express upgrade” from HP because I purchased a notebook during a time frame that gave me a free software upgrade. I wouldn’t have done the upgrade myself considering the version I got, the Home Premium, is overpriced I think at $200. While it’s a nicer interface, it’s not worth the money to me because it doesn’t help me be more productive. Now I use “express upgrade” in quotes because of the problems the software delivery company MoodusLink had with getting this express upgrade to people who signed up for it. While I put in my request in at the beginning January, I didn’t have my software until Mid-March, a month and a half since the “official” release of Vista. Yet from what I read I was lucky. They took my receipt from Ebay purchase via PayPal without question, but I’ve read stories online of people sending in the proof of purchase, only to be denied by MoodusLink and thus screwed out of an upgrade. They also were news stories online of how the upgrade may have been ready to be sent out in January, they wouldn’t be able to start shipping in March because of (fill in fake excuse here). You’d think with a much planned release, they could of been better prepared to send out the software ASAP.When I opened the software I was shocked to learn it wasn’t an “UPGRADE” at all. It was a FULL OS install, which told me anything NOT backed up on my main C: drive may be LOST. So I started by backing up everything on my hard drive, which took me about 3 hours before I could actually start installing the software.

After I installed vista everything seemed to work fine for the first minute, then BOOM, my monitor switches from a perfectly clear wide-screen display to a CRUCHED and BLURRY display. My notebook has a wide-screen 1440 wide pixel size display. When I looked at display settings it had set me to 1024 width and gave me NO OTHER OPTIONS to change the size. If you know LCD monitors, you know if they aren’t in the correct size resolution, the images turn our blurry. Thus began NEARLY A DAY of  work trying to fix that major kink to make monitor look right. I feared at that point, installing wasn’t worth it and that I would be stuck with a bad display for months. When I was installing the software, I made a point to LOG OUT exactly what went on. Here is the first day of my troubles with the install…

8:30am Because this is a fresh install, I started by backing up everything on my notebook to an external hard drive.
11:15am Backing up finished, put in install DVD and rebooted computer.
11:21AM Installing vista starts, reminds me it will restart several times during this process.
11:35am Monitor display automatically re-sized from the small, blurry install screen… screen much clearer and more desktop space.
11:38am Lots of blackness.. just a mouse cursor. Very mysterious.
11:40am User customization, starting to see the pretty interface now. However Microsoft wasn’t ready for the 3 week early daily savings time shift this year. With adjust for DST time, it’s an hour off. Awesome customization, wanted to know where I was for current settings, home, work or public location. That will be helpful with network settings I hope since they change depending on where I am
11:41am More installing going on, while Microsoft’s famous slide-show screens “while I’m busy, let me tell you how great <this program name> is” are shown.
11:47am Funky sound heard… vista icon shown… preparing desktop.
11:48am I’m at my new vista desktop. Display settings were right, now wrong and can’t be corrected to look perfect sized again. Guess HP upgrade CD will fix that. The animations are already giving me vertigo but then again, i’m hungry.. so i could just be light headed. For some reason there’s a slide show of marine life on my “widgets” (i think that’s what it is) toolbar.
11:52am put back in HP upgrade DVD… security already jumping out at me. Clicked to run it, then it wanted me to confirm, that’s what i wanted to do. Stupid. Also going from page to page in the upgrade advisor there’s a “push/pull” windows animation between screens. A simple change would do, thank you. It’s like some video editor is using ever transition in the box.
11:54am Lunch while HP DVD upgrades drivers/installs factory software I had before.
12:18pm I brought the wrong lunch to work, turns out to be my son’s noodles from last nights dinner, I refuse to go out just yet and get myself a new lunch. HP driver DVD looks like it did nothing. Trying to download new drivers from HP.com to correct monitor resolution.
12:30pm Still no better resolution for “wide-screen settings” of 1440×900. Apparently NVidia wasn’t ready for vista. From the web I read about complaints that while they claimed to be “vista ready” they weren’t. Some gamers are talking of filing a class action lawsuit. Neway, there was a driver update in beta to download on their website from March 2nd. Hopefully this works.
1:30pm Finally ate lunch, back to trying to find a driver or website to help me fix this problem. So far, nothing has worked yet.
2:17pm Searching help forms at HP and NVidia.com so far nothing. HP chat support person is clueless and asking questions like “what OS did you have before? did the monitor work fine before?” That was then, this is now. Get a clue, you work for THE COMPANY! I know more than you.
2:29pm Found website laptop laptopvideo2go.com which claims that the drivers aren’t the problem, it’s the .inf (info) files that aren’t written correctly to run right in vista.
3:09pm Haven’t fixed my problem. Guess I’m screwed. 

At this point I gave up. Later that night I tried reinstalling the OS and once again saw the screen work right, then not. Spent more time trying to fix the drivers but without avail, every driver upgrade I could find still left me with two size options BAD and REALLY BAD. Then I looked at windows update, which had installed the new NVidia drivers  from the web RIGHT AWAY after the install during my first minutes on the nww desktop. I guess it downloaded them DURING install since I was already connected to the Internet. HP’s website claimed to have a patch to fix the 1440 size problem, but it didn’t. The HP tech support person also pointed me to download SAME DRIVERS I was running from their website, which should fix the problem.Then I got the great idea of setting a SYSTEM RESTORE POINT right after install. (Windows’ System Restore Points are awesome, they let you set EVERYTHING, program installs and setups, back to the way they were at ANY POINT something was changed) So that night I went to bed and setup a new install  to run overnight. When I woke the next morning and the new system started, the FIRST thing I did was set a system restore point. Then then monitor changed not long after that. I then reverted BACK to that system restore point and TADA! PERFECT DISPLAY again, this time it didn’ t go away.I then went into windows update and forced it to ask me if it should install any updates. Windows Update tried again to “update” the NVidia video driver and this time I refused it for all future updates. I haven’t had a problem with my screen resolution since then. I guess HP and NVidia really weren’t ready for Vista from all the web forums I read.Now time for the good news…

Quick Install
The install was pretty quick for windows, on average about 30 minutes. It reminded me much of Linux (a free windows like OS) with its install setup– which ISN’T EASY for any average computer user to understand.
Better? “Security”
The back end apparently looks to be and supposed to be more secure. However I turned off the COUNTLESS “ARE YOU SURE?” warnings because everytime I tried to copy any file or run anything from a CD, it would ask me “ARE YOU SURE?” even after asking me “would you like to run the auto-run?” Which goes against CD’s being AUTO-RUN! Surprisingly it did NOT come with BUILT-IN virus protection. NO-NO you can BUY that from someone else, one of those companys they sugest is THEM with “Microsoft’s One Care”. I still run with AVG Free! It updates daily and works great!
Super Search
At first I didn’t know where to find anything, but lucky me there’s a built in search for everything. If you want to find something in the control panel, type it into the top right search box. If you can’t find a program, type it into the start buttons search box. It will find all programs and files all over your computer and your network if connected. It uses an “INDEXING” much like google does to know where all your files are BEFORE you search for them.
Animated “Aero” Interface
The interface is slick. It’s very mac-ish with its ”sidebar gadgets” which are mini tools that are often web powered. Right now I have a clock, weather-bug and daily Dilbert as my staples.
The animated windows that “ZOOM AND FADE IN” when you open and “ZOOM OUT, FALL BACK AND FADE OUT” when you close is alright, maybe a little annoying. I do like the SEE THROUGH windows (which on the edges make anything behind it look like frosted glass) and the index card shuffle like feature of the SWITCH BETWEEN windows is awesome. The LARGER ICONS are easier to see too.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Besides that, there isn’t much here worth upgrading for. Much of the interface and tools are the same, often with just a cleaner VISTA look and a few more options. All my programs are working ok with Vista, but they’re not “officially supported” by the software maker so if something goes wrong, I just have to wait until a newer version comes out. Luckily for me I have two machines at work that still run XP that I can use if I ever need something FULLY STABLE to fall back on for video editing. So should you upgrade? If its a free upgrade and your life doesn’t depend on your computer working 100% perfectly for some time, SURE!I believe windows is much like cereal. Its best FRESH, RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX, it goes stale after sitting around for awhile, there’s a promise of something fun inside but it turns out to be cheap crap and gets soggy when your start to pour things into it.

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